Surrounded by the breathtakingly beautiful landscapes of Rio de Janeiro, the Maracanã Stadium is just waiting for the light of the famous Olympics torch to signal the start of the Summer Games.

The Rio 2016 Olympics, from August 5 - 21, will be accompanied by an extensive broadcasting infrastructure that aims to change the country’s television history. The main Brazilian channels are preparing content, reporters and innovative technology to ensure outstanding coverage of the Games for both free-to-air and pay TV.

João Pedro Paes Leme, sports executive director at Globo, an Olympics media sponsor, says the network’s coverage began the day Rio de Janeiro was announced as the location of the Summer Games.

“Since then, we have known that the Brazilian public would be the host to this great event, and not just a spectator,” he says.

The communication strategy is challenging because, unlike the 2014 World Cup in which soccer is a passion for Brazilian people, the Olympic Games span a variety of sports that vary in popularity.

“From the point of view of content, our challenge is to tell stories of sports that are not so popular, and this requires special preparation to achieve coverage that reports on all the details like, for example, the rules of the game,” says Paes Leme.

Since March 2015, Globo has been showcasing the world-renowned athletes who will represent Brazil in August, and telling the stories of medals won by Brazilian athletes in previous Games. By opening day, Globo expects to have released up to 2,000 reports and 30 special series on Olympics-related topics.

“The reports present the interesting facts around the idols in each of the different [sports] categories to help the Brazilian public experience the emotion attached to each of them,” says Paes Leme. “By better knowing the rules, the equipment, the athletes and the success stories, the chances of people feeling passionate about a new discipline increase greatly.”

The coverage also includes logistical challenges.

Although Globo has broadcast previous Olympic Games and major sporting events such as World Cups, the 2014 World Cup held in Brazil marked a turning point for the network, and served as “a great learning event,” Paes Leme says.

The World Cup was a month-long event, spanning 12 cities and venues, with one final. In contrast, the Olympics is much larger, featuring 42 sports, with 306 finals and simultaneous competitions in 17 days across 33 locations in a single city.

“As a result, the planning of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games coverage is special in many ways,” says Paes Leme.

As a media sponsor, Globo built a studio inside the Olympic Park to broadcast programs and newscasts throughout the competition. The space also will be used by entertainment site GloboEsporte.com and sports channel SporTV, both of which are parts of Grup Globo.

Coverage is expected to include a total of 160 hours of free-to-air broadcasting, comprised of 110 hours of live broadcasts of major competitions. Overall, Globo will devote nine hours a day to Olympic content covering all sports. Programming will focus on swimming, athletics, judo, volleyball, gymnastics, basketball, beach volleyball, handball and soccer as the main categories, as well as the arrival of the Olympic torch and the opening ceremony.

Programming

Beyond covering the many events, Globo also is producing the original show Balada Olímpica, hosted by Carol Barcellos and Flávio Canto, which will go from airing once a month to daily during the Games.

Globo will also incorporate innovative techniques, such as a tactical table that’s been used in the past to highlight six moves at once. At the Games, the soccer tactical table will use motion graphics and integrate virtual reality to recreate the action.

A partnership with Sony will allow Globo to use the world’s first Mobile Unit truck equipped with 4K cameras and IP interconnectivity, to cover the Maracanãzinho volleyball games. That coverage will bring together many journalists, sports’ specialists, and Globo’s main sports announcers, who bring long term expertise having broadcasted up to eight previous Olympics.

Another originally-produced Globo show, Time de Ouro (Golden Team), will feature Globo’s presenters who have served as former athletes, are regarded as national heroes, and who have won a combined 15 Olympic medals and dozens of world titles. Some of the sports superstars of this team include Guga, Tande, Giba, Gustavo Borges, Hortênsia, Flávio Canto, Fabi, Shelda, Maurren Maggi, Emanuel Rego, Lars Grael and Daiane dos Santos.

“The members of this project offer a seal of quality and charisma so the public can see a distinctive mark in Globo’s broadcasting,” says Paes Leme.

Finally, the channel will work with five offices across the country – São Paulo, Rio of Janeiro, Recife, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte – together with its 119 affiliated stations “to bring the Olympic atmosphere to every Brazilian home,” says Paes Leme.

On pay TV, SporTV, a pioneer sports channel part of Grupo Globo’s Globosat, was awarded rights as an official broadcaster of the Summer Games.

“Our coverage is pluralistic; it includes the entire country,” says Bianca Maksud, marketing director of SporTV. The network is preparing “spectacular coverage” with 16 HD channels and 56 web feeds.

SporTV will air live broadcasts of entire competitions. The network will collaborate with a total of 110 presenters and anchors, 35 hosts and more than 1000 people, including Carl Lewis, Nadia Comaneci, Greg Louganis, Javier Sotomayor, Michael Johnson and Bart Conner. They will discuss highlights during the late night show E Campeão!.

“It is, without a doubt, the largest coverage in the history of Brazilian television,” says Maksud. “And everything will be available at a click. Our subscribers will be able to follow the coverage wherever and whenever they choose through our app, television, VOD, tablets and computers.”

Rede Record, which was granted shared country-wide rights, also will cover the Games on its free-to-air TV network.

CHAMADA OLIMPÍADAS 2016 from Alexandre Sousa on Vimeo.

There will be about 300 professionals involved in Rede Record’s production – with one team working in Rio de Janeiro with broadcast teams across the country – to generate 150 hours of coverage.

“In technical terms, the structure will be similar to the one we had in London,” says Douglas Tavolaro, vice president of journalism at Record.

Over the last six years, Record has had wide experience covering major sporting events, including the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, the Guadalajara 2011 Pan American Games, the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and the London 2012 Summer Olympics – its first exclusive coverage of the Games.

Once the Olympics start, the channel’s site will use interactive maps and graphics to display the main news. The coverage will be spread across Record, Record News, R7 editorial office, as well as major news agencies with the support of over 300 websites that serve as content partners. R7 also will publish content by geolocation, shared by users themselves and organized in galleries with the use of hashtags segmented by sports or by stadiums.

Finally, Tavolaro says “with the coverage of internationally recognized sporting events, we show viewers our commitment as a pluralistic and complete station, with a range of attractions for all ages. The audience knows that Record is the place to find entertainment, journalism and sports.”

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